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The Adoption of Cloud Computing in South Africa’s Oil and Gas Industry

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Information Systems (EMCIS 2021)

Abstract

Cloud computing has become an increasingly attractive option for oil and gas organizations looking to reduce costs while increasing operational excellence. The cloud is not only a tool for faster computing power and higher performance, but also as an instrument to faster application deployment, lower service costs and a step towards digital transformation. This study aimed to determine the level of cloud computing adoption within selected organizations within the oil and gas industry in South Africa. The study also attempted to understand the factors that influence this adoption and how SA oil and gas companies are utilizing cloud technologies, as well as the factors that influence the presumed lack of adoption. This research was guided by the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) framework and used a qualitatively approach, based on semi-structured interviews from seven participants, from four oil and gas companies in SA. The findings of this research show a high level of awareness but low level of adoption of cloud computing. The factors that were found to have a positive and significant influence on the intention to adopt cloud computing included security, relative advantage, compatibility, top management support, vendor support and competition. The factors that were found to be a risk or challenge towards the adoption of cloud computing included complexity, government regulations, organizational readiness, bandwidth, trust and vendor lock-in.

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Correspondence to Jean-Paul Van Belle .

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Jamalodeen, S., Van Belle, JP. (2022). The Adoption of Cloud Computing in South Africa’s Oil and Gas Industry. In: Themistocleous, M., Papadaki, M. (eds) Information Systems. EMCIS 2021. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 437. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95947-0_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95947-0_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-95946-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-95947-0

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